R&E on KerryEdwards'04 Christianity

Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly has interviews on KE04's religion campaign failure.

What it means for the next elections and what it says about the Democratic Party are important: especially in supposed 'safe' Dem bastions in the Midwest. Bush has won the industrial and heavily-unioned Ohio now twice. Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan are all trending conservative. Illinois, though still governed by the People's Republic of Chicago, went 63% to Gore in 2000 and 55% to Kerry in 2004.

Illinois remains heavily union, but the average union member goes to church, served in the military, supports prayer in school, thinks terrorists should be killed not coddled, and couldn't give a tinker's damn about gay rights.


Some money quotes:

"The Democrats have so much to say to people in this country, but they need to find a way to express it in terms of moral and religious values that people can resonate with."

"[Vanderslice's] job at the Kerry campaign was to mobilize people of faith at the grassroots level. No Democratic presidential campaign had ever tried such an effort."

The team developed a "People of Faith" space on the official campaign Web site. [Because that is just a catagory in the Democratic Party.]

They recruited religious volunteers, published campaign literature, and facilitated local prayer-potluck gatherings. Some Democratic activists weren't sure what to make of the efforts. Colleagues referred to her as "the church lady." There was also internal resistance. ["What's all this religion crap!?"]

[Said Vanderslice,] "It was a slow start. It was very new -- it's still new to many political operatives in the Democratic Party. ['It' being religion, you noticed?] And so there was some timidity around the language, around how to proceed. [Man, do we really have to say 'Jeezuz?!'"]

And I think even since the election, the party leadership has seen the truth in what we were saying all along." [You elitist anti-Christian bigots got beat again, didn't you?]

Taklis: If the Democratic elite do not stop demeaning religion and religious people as less intelligent that non-religious people they are going to continue to lose elections, and become more and more estranged from the American public.

And that actually will be bad for American democracy - we need thoughtful opposition, not blind malice and unintellectual outrage.